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User blog:Kbwwe21/Z.A.P. 42
Hello, my fellow Zootopians! Prepare to get Z.A.P.ped! It's time for this week's edition of the Zootopia Appreciation Post, or Z.A.P. for short. Every Saturday, I'm gonna be posting a different Zootopia-related topic that we can all discuss. For today's topic, I would like to talk about Night Howler sickness. Apologies for not doing this on Saturday. And this post is for last Saturday. The Night Howler sickness, often referred to as "going savage", is an affliction in mammals caused by poisonous flowers called Midnicampum Holicithias, more commonly known as "Night Howlers", which causes those afflicted to go "savage", losing all semblance of rationality and attacking all around them. There have been seventeen known sufferers of this sickness, including the fourteen Missing Mammals, jaguar Renato Manchas and Judy Hopps' uncle, Terry Hopps. While the effects can occur from ingestion of the plant, they probably wear off after a while, while in its more concentrated form, the effects can last for a very long time. It is revealed that the Night howler sickness was being transmitted artificially by Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellwether as part of a plot to induce fear of predators. Symptoms of the sickness include: *Violet convulsions *Fits of mania *Unprovoked and irrational violence *Loss of sanity, sentience, and self-control In its base form, Night Howlers may only cause these symptoms for a relatively short period of time. An example of this is how Judy's Uncle Terry is referred to, as once being afflicted with the sickness, but recovered after the effects wore off. However, in a concentrated form, only brought about by artificial distilling of liquified Night Howlers, and therefore entirely artificial in nature also, the effects appear to last for much longer, possibly indefinitely. Bellwether, the mastermind behind the operation, seems to assume that the effects will last for a while, as she is apparently unfazed by any ideas that sufferers will recover from their sickness. Now, I have several questions. First, how do the serum pellets infect a victim? I would have to assume that exposure can't be from just the liquid seeping into the body through the skin, because the effects would take too long to kick in. I think that the serum pellets are made of glass, and when fired from the dart gun will hit the victim in the neck, shattering the glass, and a shard cuts the skin, where the serum enters the bloodstream. From there, it causes a chemical reaction in the brain that decreases activity in the cerebellum, which becomes hyper-stimulated, causing the victim to lose higher reasoning functions and lash out at anything that moves. The increased stimulation is evidenced by the white areas in the brain scan charts in the picture above. Second, why do the victims attack others around them? I believe that it has something to do with the classic fight or flight theory. As part of the loss of connection to reality, the victim feels threatened by whoever is around them and tries to fight back. Word of God says that the victims do not revert to primitive instinct, but rather experience increased aggression, much like the effects of "Roid Rage". Third, does being savage make the victim become murderous? I hope not. But, then again, Bellwether's plan to stop Judy and Nick from revealing her conspiracy was to trap the duo in a pit in the museum, shoot Nick with a pellet to turn him savage, have him kill Judy, thus disposing of the only two witnesses. I can't wrap my head around the idea of Nick slaying Judy, while in that state. Him killing her would have been through increased aggression and violence, not from reverting back to predator vs prey dynamics. It's also for that reason that I believe that he would not have eaten her. The serum makes you violent, not bloodthirsty. Fourth, what would happen if an animal got hit with more than one dose? Could it make the victim even more aggressive or could it possibly kill them? I suppose it would be like overdosing any drug, and result in their demise. And finally, what would cause the effects of the sickness to last indefinitely? From what I know about drugs and medicine, I've come up with a theory. My guess is that the drug damages an animal's endocrine glands by blocking some receptor or something. The lifetime of the drug is very long in the body, so the doctors would need to specifically design a compound that clears the receptor and helps the body fight off the sickness. So, what do you guys think? Sound off in the comments below! Category:Blog posts